History of Park Avenue Partners: Invest in Mobile Home Parks

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Park Avenue Partners founder and multi-property owner Jefferson Lilly, first started his career in Real Estate investing when he acquired and renovated a couple of mobile home parks. Proven to be a lucrative flip for profit, Lilly made the decision to start full-time investing in the mobile home park industry. And today he now owns 1800 parks and continues to grow.

In an effort to help others find the same path, Lilly and business partner Brad Johnson founded Park Avenue Partners with the goal to share their investment knowledge, while teaching investors how to find the right deals to grow their investment portfolios.

Read on to learn their company history and mission statement, and catch a few early development tips from Jefferson Lilly.

History of Park Avenue Partners- How it was formed 

Over two decades ago, Jefferson Lilly began buying and managing mobile home parks, later joining forces with Brad Johnson to found Park Street Partners. Together they raised close to $70 million within a year and a half. When they launched Park Avenue, they were among a small number of investors who were bullish on mobile home parks. 

The Growth Spurt

When Jefferson started out in real estate investing he was already juggling 3 jobs with the goal to provide a better living for himself and his family. After a few years, Jefferson built up some capital and was ready to take on more deals. A few years later, Jefferson started getting offers from people watching and interested in what he was doing. 

But rather than focus solely on mobile home parks, he wanted to continue with his current work schedule. This meant two things: Jefferson needed a full-time partner who could look after things while Jefferson worked consistently. He also had to figure out how to take bigger risks and more deals; it was hard for him to do many deals at once when running several businesses and looking after his family at night and during weekends. 

Bringing on Employees

From the very beginning, Park Avenue Partners employed three additional staff members alongside Jefferson and Johnson. There is our CFO, an Accounts Payable person, and our Asset Manager.

The CFO monitors finances for all investment funds; for instance, she must monitor how much money comes into each fund, as well as monitor other cash flows out of that same fund.  

The Accounts Payable person processes payments to contractors and vendors, such as plumbing companies or tax firms-the list go on.  

And finally, the Asset Manager manages managers and determines which houses the company should be investing in. 

If given another chance to start all over again Jefferson says his first hire would have been his Asset Manager - being someone who understands finding and evaluating opportunities, and putting a deal together.  

If you’re considering hiring someone to manage deal flow, Jefferson suggests it may be best suited if you have more than or close to 1,000 pads. You can handle some yourself if you have enough time and resources. However, most people do not have that capacity, and it’s easy to get overwhelmed when managing tons of leads on your own. Hiring someone is one of the integral first ways to scale your real estate investing business.  

Park Avenue Partners Today

It’s been a great run for Park Avenue Partners, having seen a lot of acquisitions in its lifetime. Over the last three years, the company invested in 19 Parks, with another four under contract. All together PAP has 1,800 pads to its name and has just launched Park Avenue Partners Investment Fund 2. 

Mobile homes are no longer a thing of yesterday, as today they’re among America’s leading real estate investment opportunities.

Invest With Us.. 

There are multiple reasons to invest in mobile home parks, but the chief among them is how much money can actually be made. When comparing a mobile home park investment to other real estate investments, there are several differences that provide for some striking benefits.

While all real estate investments have a certain amount of risk involved with them, mobile parks typically have less due to the differences in property structure, turn-over rates, etc. This means that investors tend to not worry as much about any potential losses. 

A second benefit is that property taxes and insurance costs are generally lower than those for other property investments because there isn’t as much structure on most properties within these communities. 

To Learn More

Here are some of our top mobile home park deals to help you understand what we do and how you can invest as a limited partner. See how we purchase, rehabilitate, manage and grow these long-term income-producing real estate investments. 

Invest in mobile home parks today with Mobile Avenue Partners today to be on your way to realizing your financial goals. It’s never too late. If you’re ready, so are we. Click here to get started.